1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of telephonic switching systems and, more particularly, to such systems which automatically alter the communication capabilities of different interior communication ports of a multiport telephonic switch.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97-1.99
Telephonic switching systems such as automatic call distributors used in the implementation of telemarketing are well known. Examples of such are shown in patent applications U.S. Ser. No. 07/770,197 of Jones et al. filed Oct. 2, 1991; U.S. Ser. No. 07/416,077 of Jones et al. filed Sep. 29, 1989 and U.S. Ser. No. 07/408,165 of Lenihan et al. filed Sep. 15, 1989. In order to effectuate an efficient telemarketing scheme, it is desired to permit certain types or classes of telephone unit users, such as agents or supervisors, to have certain predetermined capabilities. For example, it may be desirable to prevent an agent from having the capability of receiving outside calls while enabling a supervisor to have the capability of both receiving and making calls outside the system.
In known telephonic switching systems, use of different logical types of interior telephonic units having different physical capabilities are assigned to different classes of users. Only the assigned class of user for a given logical type of unit is able to sign-in on the unit and obtain control of the capabilities associated with the unit. If a class of user, such as a supervisor, attempted to sign in on a logical type of interior telephonic unit, which was assigned to another user class, such as an agent telephonic unit, the supervisor would not be able to gain access to an outside line. In known systems, each class of user is assigned only one type of telephonic unit with limited capabilities. A user assigned to be an agent is assigned a telephonic unit which can perform only assigned agent capabilities. A user assigned to be a supervisor can operate a certain developed supervisory unit in which only a predetermined set of supervisor capabilities can be performed. Likewise, a maintenance user can only gain access through a maintenance device unit which performs only the capabilities assigned for a maintenance user. This is likewise the case for other types of interior telephonic units performing other logical functions in the system.
In known systems, if it is desired to create a new class of user, having its own set of personal capabilities, entirely new hardware for the new instrument unit along with entirely new software and switch interface cards have to be provided. This is because each set of communication capabilities for each different type of physical device is unique. Due to this inflexible and nonreuseable characteristic of current automatic call distributor system, different hardware (e.g. interior telephonic units of different physical capabilities and system interface cards) is needed to provide different functionality at the various ports of a multiport switch in order for the system to perform different specialized functions. These known systems also fail to enable different classes of users to utilize their assigned capabilities on various types of telephonic units regardless of the telephonic switch ports such units are connected.
This known inflexible approach towards implementing various capabilities for different applications is time consuming to develop and maintain. Since these known systems fail to flexibly provide for different functional applications without the need to redesign specialized hardware and software for each different type of user, their costs of implementation and changes are relatively expensive.